Destiny Adams smiled as her shot sailed through the hoop. Her 3-pointer from in front of the Tar Heels’ bench with three minutes to play gave UNC a seven-point lead over rival N.C. State.
Moments later, with 93 seconds to play, Adams caught the ball near the same spot, in the corner next to her team’s bench. Again, she fired up a shot. And again, it was good for three points. She raised her arms, imploring the folks in Chapel Hill to cheer louder. The crowd of 6,319 fans — the first sellout for UNC’s women’s basketball team since 2015 — obliged.
That shot from Adams proved to be the dagger, as No. 22 North Carolina captured a 56-47 win over 11th-ranked N.C. State on Sunday afternoon.
“To have that many people in the Triangle supporting two really good basketball teams, it’s not lost on me how important that is,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “It was an awesome crowd today. A lot of them were Tar Heels, so shoutout to our fans.”
Adams scored eight of UNC’s 25 fourth quarter points and also finished the game with nine rebounds. Her teammate Alyssa Ustby grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds. Kennedy Todd-Williams led the Tar Heels (12-5, 3-3 ACC) in scoring with 15 points.
UNC scored a season-low 56 points and shot a season-worst 29.7% from the floor, but won anyway behind tough defense.
“We don’t really care how the game goes as long as we have one more point than the other team, which we did,” Banghart said. “We’re certainly happy to have another ranked win under our belt.”
N.C. State (13-5, 3-4 ACC) had won three straight in the series vs. UNC before losing Sunday. Jakia Brown-Turner scored 14 points for the Wolfpack, while Camille Hobby added 13. The Wolfpack made just 18 shots, a season-low for them.
Below is a collection of photos from the wild rivalry game in Chapel Hill. N.C. State and UNC meet again on Feb. 16 in Raleigh.